May 2023 Topic: Share about someone you admire or look up to.
By Cheryl Clark with Clark Strategies
Walter! Skeeter! (If you know, you know!)
All kidding aside, when I read the topic and sat down to write this blog, my mind went in so many different directions.
There has always been someone ahead of me on my path. Someone I can look at who is just in front of me and catch a glimpse of them and feel inspired by their journey and position – they make me think I can take this next step and that next step, after all, they have, and look at where they are.
There has always been someone beside me on my path. Someone I am bumping shoulders with as we lift our feet and walk and or scrap our knees as we crawl. Are we ever truly alone? I think not.
I have been surrounded by entrepreneurs for years and years! My relationships with these folks afford me the blessing of witnessing their determination, struggles, grind, and overall moments. Meaning I am not just seeing what they are posting or when the spotlight is on them to show up – I see them with their hair pulled back and or being pulled out (whichever the case may be) and in some pretty raw emotional moments. Witnessing that ‘to hell with it’, a pause, and then the ‘okay let’s try this’ – pivot is powerful and inspiring!
I’d be amiss if I didn’t share what maybe you thought I would get to if you know my story….
The Guatemalan mother, the Mexican lady, the Honduran warrior, the Brazilian gal, the Russian immigrant – all the immigrants brave and bold enough to pack up, walk, and/or travel for days, weeks, and months in search of a better life for themselves and their families. I don’t think ‘we’ (you and I) get what this decision and trek is like!
It is not packing all your belongings, neatly folding your clothes, and buying a first-class ticket on a fancy plane anticipating a smooth landing where someone will be there to graciously pick you up, and get you to a neatly made bed with a warm shower for rest after traveling.
It IS – walking away from all you own knowing if you must return it will not be there any longer for you. It IS – bidding farewell to others knowing this journey is literally a matter of life or death and many have died taking this path. It IS – filled with HOPE and FEAR and yet not one single aspect of it falls under the category of ‘walking into the known’. It is BRAVERY, against the odds, and yet rolling those dice with a determination and perseverance I have yet to see in any others like this.
It IS more important for these folks to know that they tried – and died trying – rather than to not have ever tried. Read that again –not trying is not an option for them! It is more important that they tried, and they are willing to try even at the cost of their very lives.
That inspires me. They inspire me.
We get so attached to what we have…
We get so used to the daily routines…
We shrug and become ‘accepting’ of …
These folks…. They are not accepting of – they are in SEARCH of, and I hope I will always be found searching – rather than accepting. It is in the search we find and will continue to find and learn.
